“Hugh Hefner” and the creation of American manhood

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:30:00 +0000

Along with a vast cohort of American males raised between the 1950s and the 1980s, my budding sexuality -- and, even more so, my sense of what it meant to be a man -- was profoundly influenced by one Hugh Marston Hefner, scion of a conservative Chicago family with roots in Puritan New England. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is very much up for debate, although I think the only possible answer is that it's both.

Canadian director Brigitte Berman's fascinating documentary, "Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel," is a very mixed bag. Despite some faint gestures in the direction of journalistic balance, it plays a lot like a two-hour infomercial for the Playboy publisher's historical importance, philosophical depth and personal greatness. Yes, Hefner may have his flaws, or at least his quirks and peculiarities, the movie murmurs: So, too, did Lorenzo de' Medici!

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“Hugh Hefner” and the creation of American manhood